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Bobcats coach Mike Dunlap sticking to plan

A 16-game losing streak will not convince Bobcats coach Mike Dunlap to abandon his plan

Bobcats coach is sticking to his original plan despite the team's recent woes. (Nick Wass / The Associated Press)

By Steve Reed The Associated Press

Thu., Dec. 27, 2012

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—It would be easy for Bobcats coach Mike Dunlap to tear up his blueprint amid a 16-game losing streak and come up with an entirely new plan.

But Charlotte’s first-year coach has no plans for any such radical paper shredding.

Instead he’s preaching patience.

When Dunlap looks at his team’s struggles since opening the season 7-5, he recalls the growing pains Kevin Durant, Michael Westbrook and the rest of the Oklahoma City Thunder endured a few years ago before becoming Western Conference champions.

“Durant and Westbrook took a pounding in those first two years,” Dunlap said. “My point is I look around the league and see how those seeds were born, what those guys did and how did that culture take off? Well it didn’t take off right away, so I remind myself and my staff of that. It’s incumbent on us to stay the course.”

So Dunlap will stick with playing youngsters like Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Kemba Walker, Byron Mullens and Jeffery Taylor. They will make mistakes. They will learn on the job.

Dunlap will also continue to stress things like pressuring the ball, help defence, pushing the ball up the floor, getting to the basket and drawing fouls as staples of the foundation he hopes to build.

Sure, the 16-game skid isn’t fun.

The Bobcats know all too well about lengthy losing streaks.

They lost their final 23 games of last season to finish 7-59 under former coach Paul Silas. They added Ramon Sessions, Ben Gordon and Brendan Haywood during the off-season, bringing some veteran experience to an otherwise very young team.

After an off-season in which Dunlap stressed conditioning during marathon three- and four-hour practices, the Bobcats came out of the gates winning seven of their first 12 games, matching last season’s win total.

But things have gone downhill ever since a 45-point shellacking at the hands of the Thunder on Nov. 26.

It was a game the Bobcats said going in would be a great measuring stick for how far they’d come. But reality threw them for a loop and Dunlap’s gang has struggled to get back on ever since.

Sixteen games, sixteen losses.

They’ve lost them in a variety of ways, once blowing a 17-point lead with less than six minutes to play. They’ve been blown out of a few games, but for the most part have remained competitive.

The one consistent during the stretch is the lack of defence. The Bobcats have allowed 109 points per game during the losing streak.

“That’s not good, is it?” Dunlap said, pointing out the obvious.

Dunlap said the problem revolves around a lack of ball pressure and poor rotation.

“In the NBA you have to cover guys that are getting beat off the dribble,” Dunlap said. “The only way you can do that is to leave your man and that is a hard habit to break at this level because you’re depending on the trust factor. If you lose games there is an undermining of ‘Should I leave my man or not?’ There are question marks in the eyes.”

Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said things aren’t as dire as they might seem in Charlotte.

In fact, he sees plenty of promise in what Dunlap, president of basketball operations Rod Higgins and general manager Rich Cho are building with the Bobcats.

He said it’s only a matter of time before the Bobcats are turning close losses into wins.

“It’s always tough when you’re going through a year like they are,” Spoelstra said. “But they are getting great experience for the young players. Their players are as good as anybody’s in the league — they just don’t have as much experience. But they can hurt you on any given night. The thing is they compete and play hard. You notice that on film.”

On Tuesday night, the Bobcats hung with the defending champion Heat for three-and-a-half quarters. Charlotte trailed by two points with 7:16 left in the game before Miami went on a run and pulled away for a 105-92 victory.

Of Charlotte’s 21 losses, 12 have been by 10 points or less. That’s a far cry from last year’s team that wasn’t even competitive, losing more than one-third of their games by 20 points or more.

Dunlap said he sees “promise amid the adversity.”

Still, Walker doesn’t take much satisfaction the Bobcats are more competitive.

“Losing is losing,” said Walker, the team’s leading scorer. “Hopefully we can stop it soon. But it’s no different at all from last year. We lost last year and we’re losing this year and it’s not a good feeling at all.”

Walker realizes the Bobcats don’t have a roster with a ton of proven NBA experience, but he refuses to use that as an excuse.

“We have young guys, but at the same time it’s the NBA,” Walker said. “So we have to find a way to win. That’s what we’re going to try to do — find a way.”

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